


Orchestrating History

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: Transcendent Souls [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Don't Like Don't Read, F/M, Gen, Not Natasha Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Pro-Accords, Team Tony, You Have Been Warned, not SHIELD friendly, not team Cap friendly, time jumps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27552583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: In 1955, Daniel Sousa allegedly died at HYDRA's hands and became the first fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent.In truth, Coulson's team saved him and faked his death.Due to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s policy with enhanced, they may come to regret that decision.
Relationships: Daniel Sousa & Agents of SHIELD Team, Daniel Sousa & Howard Stark, Daniel Sousa & Original Female Character(s), Daniel Sousa & Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & Pepper Potts & James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa, Tony Stark & Avengers Team, Tony Stark & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Transcendent Souls [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1034549
Comments: 183
Kudos: 677
Collections: Teamtonystark1





	1. Interference

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

**1976**  
Daniel wasn’t sure what to make of the golden portal.

Or the old woman who walked through it, using a cane to keep herself upright. The lines in her face were deep and her hair was shock white. She had then smiled with thin lips and held a tube in a shaking hand. When she spoke, it was with a German accent that was soft with her advanced age.

‘You want the girl’s powers, young man?’ she asked. ‘In my hand, I hold the substance that gave her powers in the first place. All one has to do is inhale Terrigen Mist and they acquire their own unique set of powers.’

‘I want hers!’ he snapped.

‘Pah!’ The old woman scoffed. ‘And how would you know you won’t get even more potent powers? All she can do is shake the ground, no?’

No, but Daniel could see what the old woman was doing. He looked over at Daisy. She clearly understood too. Their assailant seemed to toss it up for a moment before he strode over and snatched the bottle out of her hand. Yanking the cork off, he took a huge whiff of it. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then his face went white. His eyes bugged, and he fell back. His skin shrunk in, stretching taut over his bones. He fell back.

The old woman raised two fingers. A golden circle appeared and swallowed the bottle. ‘I lied,’ she said. ‘Terrigen Mist only works on Inhumans. It kills everyone else.’

Daniel shifted. ‘Who…are you?’

The woman looked over at them. ‘I’ll introduce myself the next time we meet, Agent Sousa.’

She clicked, releasing their bonds.

Then she left the same way she had come.

***

**At Some Point in the last 6 Years**  
 _There was a simple fact to being an enhanced in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s power,_ Tony read from the file he’d been sent. _“Never show any ambition for yourself. You are a tool of S.H.I.E.L.D. and nothing more.” And, of course, all enhanced would sooner or later break this rule – for the simple fact that they were never told. Well! They would hardly join if they knew they held no more value than a standard-issue firearm, would they?_

_In 1976, this entry was added for necessity over anything else, and not by the original author of this document._

_I encountered an enhanced S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent chasing a set of aliens with her allies. Her name was Daisy Johnson. And there was an unexpected member of their party: one Daniel Sousa, who was said to have been the first S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to fall, all the way back in 1955._

_At any rate, perhaps a little background on Agent Sousa is required._

_Agent Sousa was referred to within our group as Peggy Carter’s Morality Pet, or The Sensible One. He was the only one who could talk sense into Carter. After he “died”, things started going downhill. Col. Phillips’ death is when everything plunged. However, his ability to tell Carter “bad idea” and be listened to was known by only the following people:_

_Peggy Carter_

_Daniel Sousa_

_Jack Thompson_

_Jason Wilkes_

_Howard Stark_

_Edwin Jarvis_

_So…once he was gone, there was no one left that could say to her “bad idea” and be heeded._

_However, there was the strong feeling amongst us that he was growing apart from her at the time of his “death”. During our encounter with him in 1976, we sensed that he had moved on to Agent Johnson._

_Conclusion: Agent D. J. Sousa will return to the 21st Century with the rest of Agent P. J. Coulson’s team. When Agent D. Johnson rises too high, as she was showing signs of in ’76, and the attack comes from her own side, they will (with little-to-no understanding of Agent Sousa’s character and blossoming affections) take him into their confidence and he will act to save Agent Johnson._

_Request: Make surveillance on situation and alert immediately._

Tony lifted his head. ‘JARVIS?’

‘Yes, sir?’ the AI responded.

‘Were you reading along?’ Tony asked.

‘I was, sir, and I have already found Agent Sousa,’ JARVIS said. ‘I suspect it won’t be too much long before they strike.’

***

**2014**  
Last year, Tony had been having panic attacks and was being attacked by a pyrokinetic nutjob he’d blown off thirteen years earlier. The President had been kidnapped by that nutjob and, more importantly to him, so had _Pepper_! And now, this year, he’d had to deal with this? And then they show up with this ridiculous demand.

‘You want me to what?’ he flatly demanded.

Steve frowned. ‘HYDRA isn’t a joke, Tony. They need to be dealt with.’

‘Oh?’ Tony drawled. ‘You mean like you’ve already dealt with things? Great job dropping three helicarriers on the Protomac, compromising the entire intelligence system of the whole country and then some, and getting who knows how many men, women, and children killed before making an ass of yourselves in front of the whole world!’

That was probably a bit much for them, because they both looked stunned, before Natasha went for a personal attack.

‘Tony, this is not the time for you to stroke your ego—!’

Tony cut her off by throwing his head back and laughing. ‘My ego?’ he demanded, looking at her scandalised expression with no small amount of amusement. ‘I’m not the former Russian spy who stood in front of a senate hearing and claimed I was too important to arrest.’

‘You did the same thing two years ago.’ Natasha was obviously trying for a reasonable tone but she sounded more condescending.

‘I told the senate they couldn’t appropriate my personal property,’ Tony said levelly, ‘in what was clearly an attempt at a kangaroo court. People _wanted_ to see me spit in their faces. Whereas with you, what people wanted was _answers_. And you spat in their faces instead.’

Natasha’s jaw snapped shut.

Steve stepped forward. ‘The people know that we were protecting them.’

‘Really?’ Tony scoffed. ‘Cause they’re still counting the dead, you know.’

‘More people would have died if we hadn’t been there,’ Steve said.

Tony turned dismissively. ‘Whatever helps you sleep at night.’

‘Tony…’ Steve began in a reprimanding tone.

‘No!’ Tony snapped at him. ‘You don’t get to use that tone on me. You screwed up, not me! And now you’re asking me to do something that is, quite frankly, highly illegal. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a private citizen, and one that holds the livelihoods of thousands of people in the palm of my hand. It’s one thing to clean up my own messes. It’s another thing entirely to go around doing counter-terrorism’s job!’

JARVIS spoke from above. ‘Sir, you meeting has arrived.’

‘Thank you.’ Tony glared at Steve. ‘We’re through here.’ He turned and started walking away.

‘No, we’re not!’ Steve reached for him.

A small repulsor blast suddenly shot across Steve’s wrist before he could grab Tony’s arm.

‘See them out, would you, J?’ Tony asked breezily as he walked into the lift.

‘Of course, sir.’

***

Steve officially hated 21st century technology with a passion. ‘Now what? Can we get back in?’

Natasha shook her head and rubbed her backside from where Tony’s AI had dropped them through a chute that dumped them onto the street. ‘Tony’s technology is too good and he’s now been right through S.H.I.E.L.D.’s databanks. Our best bet is to get to Hill and see what she says.’

‘We’ll be back,’ Steve vowed.

‘Tony does need us,’ Natasha said. ‘We’ve just dropped a mountain of paperwork on his desk that he doesn’t want to do. He’s angry, but he’ll get over it.’

***

‘Haw.’ Tony sat back in his chair. ‘So…exactly how many enhanced have been hiding from S.H.I.E.L.D.?’

‘You’ll find them everywhere,’ the woman across from him said. Sharee Pertinicle, she’d introduced herself as. ‘Mutants, Inhumans, garden variety enhanced. They’ve just learned to keep their heads down over the years.’

‘So…there are people I can go to for a possible repeat of the 2012 invasion?’ Tony asked.

‘Oh, definitely,’ Sharee said. ‘I’d be perfectly willing to help myself. The only thing is that we need the remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. to go ahead and try to rebuild itself to the next six years. Then you can tear it asunder again.’

‘Why?’ Tony asked.

The answer made Tony’s jaw drop.

‘I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.’

‘Why not both?’ Sharee suggested.

Tony nodded. ‘Yeah. Both is good. So this guy…?’

Sharee smiled. ‘I’ll tell you more a little closer to the time, all right?’

‘Fair enough.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to the statement that the TV shows are not canon to the movies, the movie timeline for this is slightly different. Also on that topic, I'm ignoring the part that says the movies are canon the the TV shows because I feel that entire explanation was just a quick way to justify not bringing Coulson back into the movies.


	2. Son of an Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Transcendent Souls knew it was inevitable that S.H.I.E.L.D. turn on Daisy Johnson.
> 
> That day has arrived.

**Present Day**   
_What did you do, Carter?_

A long day that ended with Daniel Sousa cradling Daisy’s limp and battered body in his arms as he backed up from the S.H.I.E.L.D. of the future. All of this…just because she had powers, and she’d shown leadership qualities. Coulson’s mistake, of course, had been taking Daniel into his confidence.

Daniel had not gotten into his position in the old SSR and the 1950s S.H.I.E.L.D. by being an idiot. Information was tightly controlled here, and power was clearly the priority on top of the list. Despite Talbot’s best efforts, these people were used to operating in a certain way and Sousa could see it. Daisy, of course, had been all to happy to show him the wonders of the 21st century and he’d been willing to get her away, praying to God that the apple had plopped straight down as far as Howard’s son went.

Now there had been a strange revelation: Howard Stark fathering a legitimate son.

But…it didn’t matter now.

They were cornered.

‘I’m disappointed,’ Coulson said.

‘So am I,’ Daniel said with a level tone. ‘More in Peggy than anything else. I presume she set out this modus operandi? Kill an enhanced before letting them have power?’

‘Some people need to be controlled,’ Coulson said. ‘I would think you understand that.’

‘Well, then, you obviously haven’t been paying attention,’ Daniel said. ‘Peggy Carter was the one who was afraid of anyone who had more power than her. I saw her getting more and more comfortable with the idea of oppressing people like Howard and Daisy back in the 50s. Why do you think my interest in her waned?’

Coulson raised an eyebrow. ‘You didn’t approve?’

‘A person is not a weapon,’ Daniel stated. ‘And treating them as such is just asking for trouble.’

Coulson shrugged. ‘That’s why we do this.’

Daniel blinked. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Treating someone like a weapon was done to ask for trouble so they had an excuse to attack them? Or did he completely misinterpret Daniel’s meaning? Honestly, he couldn’t see how. Could Coulson possibly be ignorant to the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. had brought this upon themselves by this very treatment of enhanced people?

_No. He can’t possibly be that stupid._

Coulson stepped forward and he went on. ‘Now put her down. We didn’t go to all the effort of saving you just to kill you now.’

Daniel scowled. ‘You’ll have to.’

Daisy turned her head into Daniel’s shoulder.

Coulson frowned and then fired. The rest of his team pulled their triggers too. Daniel flinched and jammed his eyes shut. He felt Daisy flinch in his arms, despite the gratuitous amount of bullet wounds she already had. He waited for the bullets to hit. Then…they never did. Carefully, Daniel peeked his eyes open.

The bullets had been stopped in mid-air…

…By a massive golden disk with odd symbols over it. Daniel had seen something like it before.

‘I’ve gotta say,’ an American accent said. ‘That’s so much easier without arthritis eating away at your hands.’

Turning his head, Daniel was surprised to see a young brunette woman leaning against a building wall, one hand out with her forefingers extended. A satchel was slung across her torso. She then lowered her hand. The golden disk in front of him vanished and the bullets dropped. The woman pushed off of the wall and almost swaggered over.

‘Who are you?’ May turned her gun on the woman.

‘Oh, is that a nice thing to say to one of the people who saved the universe?’ the woman remarked. ‘But I wouldn’t worry about me, Agent May.’ She pulled a smart phone out of her pocket.

Music began blaring from it. It took Daniel a moment, but he placed it as AC-DC.

‘Hello, Agent!’ a voice hollered through the speaker. ‘You’re looking good for a dead man!’

Coulson’s face went white. ‘Oh, no…’

‘Oh, yeah!’ the woman crowed.

In the next moment, the Iron Man suit landed between him and Daisy and Coulson and his team. Heaving a sigh of relief, Daniel slumped against the wall. He didn’t know how they’d done it, but Howard’s boy had gotten here with back-up, just in time to save both him and Daisy. It was good to know that the apple _had_ plopped straight down.

A portal, like the one in ’76, appeared in the other wall and a man in eastern clothes and wearing a red cape, with odd facial hair, stepped through. He raised his hands. Daniel’s eyes were drawn to the extensive scars that covered the man’s hands as he lifted the limbs. Behind Coulson’s team, a line of people, all with an “X” marking the uniforms they wore, lined up and blocked their exit.

‘If you’re wondering,’ Iron Man said, ‘you were only allowed to continue to close a time loop Sharee here knew about.’ He nodded to the young woman. ‘See, she’s a Transcendent Soul. When she dies, she’s reborn. And for a specific purpose that has nothing whatsoever to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s paranoia about enhanced people.’

Daniel suddenly found himself remembering a woman of extreme old age in a barn in 1976.

She’d allowed them to escape with minimal injuries and tricked their captor into killing himself.

Could this be the same person?

Fitz spun around and fired at the people behind them. A man with a familiar face shot in front and took the bullet. His head jerked and he grunted. But then he turned back to them and Daniel realised he’d seen this man’s face before. It was possible he just _looked_ like Lt. Howlett from the Second World War but…healing like that…he didn’t think it likely.

Daniel was certain this was the same guy.

In the next instant, one of the women standing with Howlett lifted a hand and Coulson’s team lost all of their guns. The firearms just flew out of their hands and holsters. The only ones who didn’t look on the verge of a panic attack were Coulson and May, and Daniel knew that was because they were the most stoic ones on the team.

There was a whirring sound and Daniel saw Tony Stark for the first time, even if only from behind. Apart from the clothes, if he didn’t know better he’d say he was looking at the back of Howard. Tony stepped out of the Iron Man armour, glancing over his shoulder at Daniel and Daisy, and then turned back to Coulson’s team, folding his arms.

‘Talbot told us he had to…remind you to operate above board,’ Tony said to Coulson. ‘And here and now, you’ve proven that your tactics really haven’t changed.’

The man with the scarred hands stepped up next to him. ‘HYDRA infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. because your tactics were the same, even if your endgoal was different. How do you expect to avoid history repeating itself if you make the same mistakes again and again?’

Tony shrugged. ‘Truth be told, we only let you reform, and only under strict supervision, because we needed you to close this time loop.’ He nodded his head back at them.

‘How did you know?’ Coulson asked suspiciously.

‘You heard of Otto Fabian?’ Sharee pulled a thick document out of her satchel.

Daniel remembered him. He’d been a German who’d joined S.H.I.E.L.D. with several others. Some had been unsure, but Daniel had become comfortable with Otto. That was because he’d been friends with Emil Weber, a German man who’d infiltrated the Nazi party for the express purpose of passing on information on them back to the allies.

‘Wait,’ Daniel said. ‘So, Agent Fabian infiltrated HYDRA and then came with them when they infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.?’

Sharee grinned at him. ‘That’s about it. And he wrote a big, thick document about it.’

‘Detailing everything that happened in his lifetime,’ Tony said. ‘And because he’s a Transcendent Soul who’s seen faked deaths before, he noticed that yours had been. He just couldn’t work out what had actually happened.’

‘Until we noticed you guys in 1976,’ Sharee added. ‘Then, it all came together. So we organised it that Otto’s report would get to Tony in 2014, right as he was finished sorting out the data dump.’

‘And I may have shared the file with the intelligence community, after going through it myself,’ Tony said.

May frowned. ‘They took a file seriously when it mentioned time travel?’

Tony scoffed at her. ‘No, because the report didn’t explicitly mention time travel. He said what physically happened and his own conclusions, but no more. He said in 1955 that Daniel Sousa,’ he nodded his head to Daniel, ‘had been shot. But then he expounded on his own examination of the body and the facts that led him to believe that the body did not actually belong to Daniel Sousa. Even when other Transcendents edited it, they stuck to the facts. Time travel was assumed, but not stated.’

The man beside him smirked. ‘And seeing as we now have the actual device used to travel through time, it won’t be long before we can actually say it.’

‘What?’ Coulson demanded flatly.

‘Oh, we’ve been keeping a close eye on all your missions, Agent,’ Tony said. ‘And the time travel device is in the process of being confiscated.’

‘You can’t do that!’ Fitz yelled.

But all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s initial power and influence had come from Howard Stark’s generosity, money and influence.

And not a lot had changed in all these years.

***

**2015**  
‘They’re still nagging us to join in on their HYDRA hunt,’ Bruce said as Tony walked in.

‘Of course they are,’ Tony said. ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. could never have gotten off the ground if not for dad, and then it sustained itself on the Stark fortune. Now they’ve been cut off and they’re trying to get back into my good books.’

‘That would work better if they weren’t trying to manipulate you so blantantly,’ Bruce remarked. ‘I mean, after infiltrating your company like that and giving you and Pepper that headache of going over everything Natasha so much as touched, and then Coulson just breaking in here instead of…I don’t know, sending you a message or something.’

Tony snorted. ‘Ah…Agent.’

Bruce paused and then he blinked. ‘He’s not dead, is he?’

‘He was dead.’ Tony frowned. ‘They have a way to bring back the recently deceased, but it’s extremely traumatic and they wiped his memory of the actual process so his mind wouldn’t snap from it.’

Bruce’s eyebrows flew up. ‘That’s a pretty big violation.’

Tony nodded. ‘But he’s just rolled with it, and he’s got his own team now. They’re trying to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. from the ground up.’

Bruce shook his head. ‘Not sure how that’s going to go. No one would want them, would they?’

‘No…but apparently, we have sufficient reason to let them be for now.’

‘Why?’ Bruce sounded befuddled.

‘Reason number one is that it lets us get a good look on who is a S.H.I.E.L.D. or HYDRA loyalist and who literally just had that job to pay the bills,’ Tony said. ‘It also lets us see just how deep their indoctrination goes. A guy called Talbot’s been sent in to keep an eye on them. He’s got a good track record as far as enhanced go.’

‘And…?’ Bruce pressed.

Tony smiled. ‘Seems, in a handful of years, they find a time travel device and while they’re using it, they close a time loop.’

‘Who told you that?’ Bruce asked.

‘Someone who was there.’

***

‘But they were lied to!’ Rogers argued.

Fury gave the super-soldier his most unimpressed glare. ‘At first, maybe, Rogers, but Wanda Maximoff gained the ability to read minds. That girl is guilty and she needs to be tied down.’

‘She’s just a kid!’

Fury gave him a strange look. Then he chuckled. ‘I see. This is about Barnes.’

Rogers jerked back like he’d been slapped. ‘How…?’

‘You really think we didn’t know that the Starks had been murdered?’ Fury sneered. ‘Maria Stark was manually strangled, for fuck’s sake! We knew. We just didn’t know who until Romanoff reported on the Winter Soldier.’

‘It wasn’t Bucky!’ Rogers snapped against the sting of betrayal. ‘He’s innocent.’

Fury curled his lip. ‘And you think you can get Barnes outta trouble by passing Wanda Maximoff off as a victim of HYDRA? Get your head outta the sand! Wanda tortured and killed with full knowledge of what she was doing. She went in to get her powers for one reason, and she hasn’t been shy about sharing: she wanted to kill Stark for something he was only remotely associated with.’

‘It was his bomb!’ Rogers snapped.

‘Really?’ Fury inclined his head. ‘Well, let me put something to you then, Rogers. During the war, Howard Stark was hired to make a weapon. Upon building it, he discovered, and then declared, this weapon unsafe to use and dropped the contract. The man that originally contracted him broke into his lab and appropriated the weapon anyway. The result? Well, in 1946, a man called Fennhoff tried to kill Howard personally because that weapon had killed Fennhoff’s brother.’

Rogers shook his head, a look of confusion on his face. ‘That wasn’t Howard’s fault.’

‘You’re right,’ Fury said. ‘It wasn’t.’

‘So, why tell me that?’ Rogers asked.

‘You agree the incident with Fennhoff wasn’t Howard’s fault. So why are you blaming his son for pretty much the same thing?’

Rogers frowned. ‘It’s not the same thing!’

‘No?’ Fury asked. ‘So, the Maximoff twins blame Stark for their parents dying because a bomb, potentially made in his factory, hit their apartment building. Fennhoff blamed Howard for killing his brother because one of Howard’s weapons was used to do the deed. What’s the difference?’

Rogers stood there, jaw working as he tried to come up with something.

‘There is none,’ Fury said. ‘They’re all just nut jobs that decide to deal with their grief by turning into murderers.’

After a moment, Rogers went, ‘They’re just kids!’

‘They were eighteen when they volunteered,’ Fury shot back. ‘That’s old enough to vote in most countries. They knew exactly what they were doing. They’re too dangerous to be let loose. You wanna make a precedent for Barnes, I recommend you look for another brainwash victim rather than someone who did it of their own free will.’

‘Stark—’ Rogers began.

Jesus, this guy just didn’t know when to give up. ‘Stark is far more valuable to us than they could ever be. We’re already in the shit-pit with him. I need to get back into his good graces. Blaming him for something he was only remotely associated with will just dig us in deeper, Rogers.’

‘We don’t need him!’ Rogers insisted.

Fury scoffed. ‘Maybe I should respond to the tax office. If you had to start paying taxes again, you might get it.’

***

Rhodey followed Tony into the meeting room.

There was already a small group waiting for them. Rhodey wasn’t overly surprised to see Sharee already in there, talking to them. She was speaking, most notably, with a woman with dark skin and white hair, and a stocky man with an unlit cigar between his teeth. There were a few others, including a figure that looked like a humanoid furry…beast but held himself like a regular human, and a bald man in a wheelchair.

The group, though, turned and looked as he and Tony looked in.

Sharee stood up. ‘Tony, Rhodey. I suppose I better introduce you to the X-Men.’


	3. A Few Formalities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Sousa's known to be in the 21st century there are a few formalities to get done.
> 
> He doesn't complain, unlike...certain other people.

**Present Day**  
Happy wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting.

“Daniel Sousa” wasn’t a name he knew. Apparently, he was more famous in the halls of S.H.I.E.L.D., and only because he’d…died. Well, turned out he hadn’t actually died. The Transcendents had known about it. (Was there anything they didn’t know?) And they’d had…an interesting nickname for him.

Mr. Preferable.

At any rate, once Tony had found that part of Fabian’s report, he’d notified the relevant authorities. The army had dived into the records, looking for the guy. Turned out he’d been honourably discharged with a permanent leg wound. Officially, he’d died in 1955, shot by Russians apparently. But there were a few problems with that.

One, there was no evidence the Russians had anything to do with it. Much like Howard Stark’s “theft” of the Pym Particles, it was assumed by one person and then taken for fact. Secondly, the Russians had checked their own records and then announced that they hadn’t tried to kill the guy. His name didn’t even appear in any of their records, not even the ones off-the-book. Thirdly, he was poking around S.H.I.E.L.D. itself just before he “died”.

More than a few people had drawn the conclusion that he’d smelt the HYDRA rat and they’d gone to kill him before he could expose them.

Regardless everyone had lined up to re-establish the guy’s legal identity when everything was said and done.

Tony had already called all the relevant parties up and told them to ready their paperwork. _‘But hold it off a bit longer,’_ he’d said. _‘Fabian’s report was right about Sousa and Agent Johnson. She’s been severely wounded by Coulson’s team and I think he ought to have his mind set at rest on that note before we dump a mountain of paperwork in front of him.’_

Coulson’s team, who were currently in custody along with Fury and Hill, and just waiting on the wayward Avengers. The information had been allowed out too. After all, what better trap than that bunch in need of “rescuing”. The X-Men were lying in wait. Logan was actually looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, Rhodey and Happy walked through the medical wing.

Happy saw Sousa sitting in one of the waiting room chairs, staring down the corridor where they’d taken Johnson. Tony had called Dr. Cho for her. The man had a few grey hairs at the crown of his head. One of his legs was stretched out. Happy presumed it was the bum leg. The former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent looked over as they approached.

‘Agent Sousa,’ Rhodey said. ‘I’m Lt. Col. James Rhodes. This is Mr. Hogan. He’s SI’s Head of Security.’

Sousa stood up, with some difficulty, and offered a hand. ‘A pleasure to meet you both.’

He was pretty progressive for a guy from the 50s. Happy was under the impression that white men, as a general rule of thumb, didn’t extend courtesy to African-Americans back then. Looked like they already had something to work with, Happy mused as he shook Sousa’s hand. Rhodey smiled.

‘Not to be rude, but I take it that’s your old war injury playing up,’ he said. He nodded to the chair as a gesture that Sousa should sit.

‘Yeah.’ Sousa retook his seat. ‘Agent Simmons built me a prosthetic but they shot through it when they were chasing us.’

Rhodey pulled a face. Sousa probably had weight in S.H.I.E.L.D., but that would have fallen flat once they realised that he didn’t share their paranoia on the enhanced population. Of course, with something like that, you could pretty much count on Tony’s reaction to hearing that. Happy glanced down at the leg in question.

‘Have you told the medical staff?’ Rhodey asked.

‘Yeah.’ Sousa looked over. ‘But, to be fair, they noticed me limping and asked.’

There was a nurse currently walking towards them with a crutch.

‘We had a couple spare, Mr. Sousa,’ she said as she handed it to him.

‘Thank you,’ Sousa said. ‘How’s Daisy?’

‘She’s responding well to the treatment,’ the nurse said. ‘We think she’ll be up in a few days.’

Sousa smiled and nodded. It was only after she left that he remarked, ‘That seems fast.’

‘Dr. Cho was called,’ Rhodey said. ‘She’s the creator of the Cradle. That’s a device that regenerates the cells of both bones and flesh. Tony hired her years ago when he first heard the proposal.’

Sousa looked over at him. ‘Tony is Howard’s boy, isn’t he?’

Rhodey gave a wry smile. ‘Yeah. But I’d tread very carefully around the subject. It’s…complicated.’

Sousa didn’t comment, but something did pass across his expression.

From what Happy heard, that was a vast improvement from how Rogers reacted to the same warning.

Rhodey pulled a set of booklets out from under his arm. ‘Actually, I’ve been sent to deliver these to you. When we found the part about you in Fabian’s report, we contacted the alphabet soup. And they contacted a bunch of other agencies, so everyone’s basically been waiting to get your identity re-established in the 21st century. These are the information booklets.’

‘Fair enough.’ Sousa held his hand out for them. ‘I was wondering about that.’

‘S.H.I.E.L.D. weren’t big on the idea?’ Rhodey guessed as he handed the booklets over.

‘I officially die in 1955 and come back to live in the 21st century,’ Sousa remarked as he started looking over which organisations had sent him information. ‘I’m an American citizen. It stands to reason that they’ll want to get me re-started on things like taxes. Actually, that was my first clue that something was intrinsically wrong with even the rebuilt S.H.I.E.LD. They were extremely cagey around something as basic as that.’

Happy already liked this guy.

***

Tony looked up as Pepper brought him a cup of coffee.

‘How’s Sousa doing?’ she asked.

‘I need to build him a new prosthetic leg,’ Tony announced. ‘Agent’s team already damaged the one they gave him. Poor guy’s back on a crutch.’

Pepper smiled. ‘Well, that can wait a little while. How’s he handling all the paperwork that’s been dropped in his lap?’

‘Evidently, he hasn’t voiced a single complaint,’ Tony said. ‘Rhodey and Hap said he had expected that sort of thing with moving to a new time. He read the booklets in the waiting room until they let him in to sit with Johnson. Then he continued reading them from her bedside. And he asked for a device to look up anything he didn’t understand.’ He took a sip of coffee. ‘By all accounts, the polar opposite of Rogers.’

Pepper smiled. ‘Well, this guy was a war veteran and a fully trained intelligence agent. Rogers was just a propaganda piece that didn’t even finish boot camp.’

‘Hm.’ Tony took another sip of coffee. ‘Oh, and it turns out we were right.’

‘I find it odd that he smelt the rat back in the 50s, and Carter never knew until the end of her life if that,’ Pepper remarked.

‘Did you know him and Carter were a thing at one point?’ Tony remarked idly. ‘I haven’t actually asked him, but it looks like the relationship fell apart because they had completely different attitudes towards…everything.’

Pepper frowned. ‘Such as?’

‘Well, before his assassination, _he_ was the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ Tony said. ‘There were other options. Col. Phillips was officially retired but he still had veto power over S.H.I.E.L.D. leadership. Most of the guys he vetoed because they were corrupt. There was one guy that could’ve done it, but he was shot in a motel room in 1947, dropped into a coma, and died in early 1948.’

‘How come he stayed alive so long?’ Pepper asked.

‘Because dad paid for the treatment to try and save him,’ Tony answered. ‘By the time the SSR became S.H.I.E.L.D., it was literally Sousa or Carter. On the record, Sousa was picked because he was a man. But I got my hands on the colonel’s personal notes on the subject. From what I read, his real reason was because Sousa was more even tempered, unbiased, and level-headed than Carter was.’

Pepper blinked. ‘Even-tempered?’

‘That was a very polite way of putting it,’ Tony said. ‘Looking over her records, I can actually see why he’d be hesitant to put her in charge of anything. She was very “shoot first, ask later”.’ He paused for dramatic effect. ‘Kind of like someone we know. Do you know, she even started relentlessly punching a superior, while it was still the SSR, and she got away with it?’

Pepper pulled a face. ‘How?’

‘Could ask Sousa,’ Tony said. ‘Seems he was the one who pulled her away from him.’

Pepper shook her head. ‘You can see why she and Rogers were attracted to each other.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Tony grumbled.

**2016**  
Fury’s life would be so much easier if Stark was the one fielding this shit-show.

There was no other way to explain it. Apparently the Accords had taken the Avengers completely by surprise. What in Hell’s name had those idiots been doing? At the very least Romanoff and Barton should have been paying attention. Well…perhaps not Barton. He wasn’t ever on the S.H.I.E.L.D. payroll for his brains.

Then again, if not for Stark turning his efforts elsewhere then they wouldn’t know about the sheer number of enhanced that’d been hiding in New York alone. Even if they were under Stark’s protection, and therefore all efforts to trace them fell flat, he’d had no idea there were so damn many that’d escaped S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar before.

But why did they come out of the woodwork for Stark, of all people?

At any rate, Stark had gotten them in on the negotiations of the Accords from the start – a fact Fury had only learned today. That’s why mutants and inhumans gained protections under the Accords. It was why there was a clause for minors. It was why the Accords were ratified to the point where there were no sneaky clauses in them that would infringe upon any human rights. _Implying at least one of those enhanced has a day job in law._

If Rogers didn’t pull his head outta his ass, it would make the Avengers the only ones who outright rejected them.

‘The Avengers exist to make the world as safer place,’ Rogers said. ‘I feel we’ve done that.’

Fury scoffed. ‘When did you decide that, Rogers? I told you at the start. The Avengers were created to fight the threats no one else could. Terrorists do not fall under that category.’

A mulish look came over Rogers’ face. ‘These documents just shift the blame.’

In other words, he didn’t want to be held accountable. He didn’t want to have to answer for his actions. Because Fury knew the explanations behind his behaviour (because Romanoff and Barton reported to him), he thought S.H.I.E.L.D. gave him that. Even though he hadn’t bothered learning anything but a few pop culture references here and there, he knew they were the only body that would give him that leniency.

Even if he wouldn’t admit it aloud, he knew every other organisation would demand he explain himself.

That’d probably come from Stark deciding to drop them all after the data dump. Without the billionaire there to smooth things over, _everyone_ had demanded answers from Rogers. The senate, the media, the public…all of them. That was why Rogers had been moved from Washington back to New York, where there was hardly anyone who’d been affected by three helicarriers being dropped on a city.

‘Shift the blame, Rogers?’ Fury deadpanned. He looked over the Avengers, which currently consisted of Rogers, Romanoff, Barton, Wilson, and Sharon Carter. ‘From who to who? I don’t see any of you owning up or pointing the finger. And you haven’t read a word of it. You just listened to me summarise it.’

Rogers folded his arms. ‘What if these Accords people tell us to go somewhere we’re not supposed to go. It’s just governments with agendas.’

Fury had enough. ‘Rogers, shut your mouth. You think it’s not obvious that you’re using every excuse you can think of to avoid even considering the Accords. Well, let me tell you something. If you reject these, the Avengers will be the odd ones out.’

‘What d’you mean?’ Wilson asked. ‘We’re _The_ superhero team.’

Wilson was a follower, which made him a nice fit for S.H.I.E.L.D. Unfortunately, he’d chosen to follow Rogers, who was only controlled by Romanoff. And even she had her limits. She’d already made it clear that when Barnes was involved, Rogers turned into a speeding steamroller that would flatten even her if he thought she was in his way. Which meant in order to control Wilson, one had to control Rogers.

‘The Avengers were originally a S.H.I.E.L.D. property,’ Fury answered. No need to mention they still were. ‘But they were hardly the only team of enhanced around. The X-Men have been operating since the 1960s.’ Predating the previous Avengers team by about 20 years. ‘The Defenders and the New Mutants were formed when enhanced individuals came together and formed their own teams to protect their local areas. Excalibur is the UK’s main team of enhanced. The Fantastic Four were a group of scientists who came together as a team after being exposed to, and being the only ones to survive, the same blast of cosmic radiation. The Winter Guard is Russia’s response to the Avengers.’

Rogers pulled a face and went to open his mouth.

Fury cut him off. ‘And here’s the funny thing, Rogers. They, and all the other superhero teams like them, have all put in their two cents about these Accords. Why the bunch of you knew nothing about them I don’t know,’ he glared at Romanoff and Barton in particular, ‘but what you do next reflects not only on what kind of heroes you are, but on whether or not the Avengers are going to continue or not.’

There was a long, tense silence in the room.

Steve’s phone vibrated.

***

Tony was dozing on the couch.

Logan had given T’Challa a “firm talking to” about the perils of taking the law into his own hands. And if he had to be carried off after he’d tried to attack Logan…well, the Wolverine had only acted in self-defence by disabling his attacker. It made Tony glad he’d dumped the Avengers back in 2014, honestly. Otherwise, that would be his headache.

Steve was running off half-cocked after Barnes was caught on camera after the bombing in Vienna.

And it wasn’t Tony’s problem.

A tap on the arm made him lift his head.

‘Phone for you, Tony.’ Sue handed the phone to him over the back of the sofa. ‘Sounds like Russia.’

‘Huh? Oh, thanks.’ Tony shook himself away and took the phone. ‘Hello? Tony Stark.’

‘Mr. Stark,’ a Russian accept said. ‘This is Agent Zima of the Russian government. My team is responsible for the recovery of all HYDRA operatives, records, and documents.’

‘Yes?’ Tony couldn’t think of a single reason why a Russian intelligence retrieval team would be calling _him_. All the same, his gut twisted.

‘We have recovered a videotape,’ Agent Zima said. ‘It directly affects you, but I don’t wish to tell you this over the phone. I’m currently en route to New York with the tape.’

‘You want me to watch it?’ Tony asked.

‘And I recommend you bring a friend.’ There was something in Agent Zima’s tone Tony definitely did not like.

Right then and there, he decided he was bringing Rhodey.


	4. The Transcendent Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Transcendent Souls have a job to do.

**Present Day**  
Daniel looked over at Daisy as Hogan drove them to Tony Stark’s house.

Daisy had been almost completely healed by Dr. Cho’s Cradle. All that was left were a few scrapes and bruises. Tony had apparently funded almost all of her research into the Cradle. It was definitely an investment Howard would’ve approved of. He’d never managed to get out of weapons, no matter how hard he’d tried.

Although…it looked like what Daniel had observed in the 50s had only gotten worse.

_Guess I did make the right decision._

Now, Daisy was another kettle of fish. While she was just as strong as Peggy (he would argue stronger), she didn’t feel the need to have all those hard edges. She’d had a hard life and, rightfully, had every right to be intolerant of people. Yet she was open and warm and compassionate.

She’d told Daniel about the tragedy that marked her early life. It’d made him despair at the thought that Peggy had created a S.H.I.E.L.D. that didn’t bother looking into the people they approached, especially people that HYDRA would have reason to covet. A little homework, a little empathy towards the Inhumans, and the whole disaster could have been averted.

If it’d been Sousa, he’d have done his homework and decided not to engage.

But, thanks to Tony’s AI, FRIDAY, he knew S.H.I.E.L.D. had become exactly what Peggy had been pushing him for after “he” was shot. She’d wanted a totally secret organisation that would “control” anyone with “dangerous abilities”. And she’d failed to see how that could go south, repetitively insisting that it was what needed to be done.

Daniel pressed his lips together. _And without me to stop her, she got exactly what she wanted._ He knew it was illogical to feel bad about that. He was, officially, dead. Peggy had been the last one left who was suited to the job. And Howard hadn’t the foggiest idea about any of the procedures – a fact she’d evidently taken advantage of.

‘Whoa,’ Daisy said, drawing Daniel’s attention out of his thoughts.

Hogan pulled into a clearing in the woods and parked outside a large cabin in the woods, next to a lake. The cabin stood in the middle of the clearing, with several pieces of outdoor furniture scattered around it, including a barbeque set-up between the cabin and the lake. Apart from the setting, it looked like the kind of thing Howard might’ve owned; the kind of thing he would’ve considered “a little house”.

It was massive.

Hogan opened the door. As Daniel climbed out of the car, he internally cursed the crutch he still needed to use. But Daisy was pretty quick over to him. It’d been a pretty hard blow, honestly, having to go back to the crutch. He thought he’d done a good job of covering that up. He guessed he was so used to dealing with Peggy that he didn’t realise that Daisy could see right through him.

It was…kind of a nice feeling.

Having someone extend compassion without any ulterior motives.

Hogan led them to the front porch of the house. He then knocked on the front door. A moment later the curtain on the inside of the pane of glass next to the door was pushed aside. Daniel was surprised to see a toddler on the other side. Her face lit up when she saw Hogan and she bellowed out.

‘Happy! Daddy, Happy!’

So Howard’s son had a daughter? Made sense that he’d want to raise her outside of the city then. From everything he’d seen so far, Tony was one of the most powerful men in the world and, it looked like, a lot of people had it out for him for perceived slights from either Tony or Howard. Daniel had read up on some of the incidents once he finished with the booklets Col. Rhodes had given him, and the logic escaped him.

Except for the Maximoff affair.

That was pretty much Fennhoff all over again.

Just without the framing-Stark-for-a-capital-offence thing.

The door opened and Tony was on the other side. When he grinned upon seeing them, Daniel found himself reminded of Howard, back in the 40s. Except for the fact that his daughter pretty much glued herself to the inside of the screen door. Tony picked her up and settled her on his shoulders before he opened the door and let them in.

‘Thanks, Hap. Come in,’ he said. ‘We’ll take a seat and grab some coffee before we start talking shop.’

Tony led them into a house that was far simpler in taste than anything Howard ever had. The furniture in the living room was more homey than obviously expensive like Howard had decorated every house he had with. It looked like Tony valued comfort over opulence. Though Tony was just as chatty as Howard as he led them through the house, with Hogan taking up the rear, and explaining a few things.

‘…And I can build you a new prosthetic if you like,’ Tony said.

‘A new prosthetic?’ Daniel glanced down. ‘Well…I suppose it might be nice to lose the crutch again.’

‘Great! When you sit down, put your leg up and J can get the dimensions. I’ll work it all out from there.’

Presuming that was his home AI, Daniel followed Tony into the living room. There was a redheaded woman moving around. It looked like she was straightening out the documents on the coffee table. Daniel’s assumption that she was Tony’s wife was confirmed when Tony’s daughter reached out to her with a, ‘Mommy!’

Tony quickly introduced her as Pepper.

***

Daisy had heard all about the Starks, of course.

But hearing about someone, and meeting them in the flesh was another thing entirely. You expected people like that to be extravagant and larger-than-life. And Tony Stark had gotten more than a few disparaging remarks from Coulson’s team. Remarks that she now realised (partially from Daniel’s stories about Howard, and partially from the effects of the last few days) were based on a culture of suppression.

Under Peggy Carter, S.H.I.E.L.D. had grown a mindset in which gifted people, whether they be enhanced or endowed with above average intellect, were viewed with suspicion and fear. Rather than try to understand where they were coming from, or that something beyond their control had occurred, they sought to take away their agency “for the greater good”.

Of course, they dressed it up all pretty. God forbid anyone look at it and realise that it was wrong to treat people like that. God forbid anyone with any ability to stand up and say “no” realise what was behind it. God forbid that any normal person comes into S.H.I.E.L.D., sees the policy for what it is, and refuses to tolerate it.

And that was probably another reason they got rid of Daniel.

He did not have the same fear of people like them.

Because Tony Stark was not the man-child they claimed him to be. As Tony pulled up the dimensions for the new leg he was going to be building Daniel, he gave no signs of the immaturity that was complained of him. He even had a little toddler, leaning up in the way. A man-child would scream at the kid. Instead, Tony calmly picked his daughter up and set her on his knee so she could see it more clearly, all without breaking from his explanation.

_On top of that, didn’t he take his father’s multi-million-dollar company and turn it into a multi-billion-dollar one that works all over the world? A spoilt man-child who “doesn’t work well with others” would never be able to do that._

Culture of suppression.

And they’d only allowed it to continue so that Daniel Sousa would be saved and they had something to work with for the next step.

‘I should make it bulletproof,’ Tony was saying. ‘What Coulson’s team did would probably be the first thing anyone who knew you had a prosthetic would do. Of course, then you would have the problem of the bullet ricocheting, but I think making it a vibranium alloy could fix that one for us.’

Daniel frowned. ‘You can get vibranium?’

‘J?’ Tony asked.

‘I believe we’ll gain access to some within the week,’ the AI answered him, surprising Daisy by having a voice of his own.

Daniel looked up alarmed. ‘That sounds like Edwin Jarvis.’

‘That’s because he let me use his voiceprint when I was programming my first AI here.’ Tony nodded upwards. ‘I named him after him too.’

Daniel started to grin.

Suddenly Mrs. Stark – and it was still strange to think of Pepper Potts as Pepper Stark – yanked open the back door and yelled, ‘Gerald, get out of the garden!’

They all twisted around as she ran out to chase “Gerald” out of the garden.

‘Gerald?’ Daniel asked.

‘Daddy’s alpaca,’ Morgan Stark said, oddly eloquent for her age.

Daisy found herself amused. ‘You have a pet alpaca?’

‘Yup,’ Tony said, grinning in the way people did when they were testing for a reaction.

The alpaca wasn’t the weird part though. It was far enough out from the city to legally own one, and lots of people had far more unusual pets. ‘And…you named it Gerald?’

Daniel shook his head. ‘That’s nothing. Back in the 40s, Howard had a pet flamingo he named Bernard.’

Tony twisted back around, eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. ‘Dad had a _what_?’

**2018**  
Six Transcendent Souls stood in a circle around the scout, or whatever he was.

His eyes darted between them. To him, it looked like they were just standing around him, having used unbelievably powerful elemental powers to hold him down, in complete silence. He had no idea that this wasn’t the fully group. He had no idea one of their number could synchronise all their thoughts and could synchronise to his.

He had no idea that they’d already gotten all they needed to know.

He waited for them to start talking; giving him some idea of what they were and what their intentions were.

He had no idea that those plans were already being discussed, after he was cut out from the synchronisation.

These were very old souls.

They had seen the Devshirme system and the Janissary Infantry. They had seen the Gilman and the Mamluk. They had seen the same systems used all over the world, even if they were covered up because “Oh, of course _we_ don’t do that”. They knew what kind of a soldier they had before them.

And they knew his…devotion left them only one option.

They killed him.

And then…they went on to Thanos.

Had Thanos known what he was facing…

No. Even then, he was too devoted to his mad dreams of “balance” to ever let anything stop him.

The idea that the Infinity Stone had created their own defence would never have crossed his mind.

The idea that someone had been selected and empowered specifically to fight off people like him…would have seemed like a far-fetched myth to him.

It would seem like a tall tale people told to discourage others from gathering the Infinity Stones.

But, it was true.

And by the end of the fight, which was 80% trying to talk Thanos to the flaws in his logic, everyone knew it.

And then…those 12 unremarkable-looking people vanished back to where they’d come from.

No one knew what planet they lived on.

No one knew if they lived on the same planet, or different planets.

No one knew their names.

But the Transcendent Souls had done their duty.

And the Infinity Stones were, once more, scattered across the universe.

***

The Eye of Agamotto hung around Dr. Strange’s neck.

‘I’m confused,’ Tony said. ‘If they scattered the rest of the Infinity Stones, why leave this one here?’

‘The Time Stone and the Masters of the Mystic Arts are sort of an alarm system,’ Wong explained.

Dr. Strange expanded on that. ‘If there is one Infinity Stone here, then anyone seeking the Stones will come here to get it. And Earth’s reputation in the wider galaxy will leave the Order underestimated. After the first attack, we can alert the nearest Transcendent Soul to the problem and they can mobilise quickly.’

Tony grinned. ‘So it’s a trap.’

Wong smiled. ‘Pretty much.’


	5. A Refreshing Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel Sousa is quite different from Steve Rogers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It should be noted that, at this point, Sousa's psychological understanding is still very 50s-esque. This will actually be corrected before he's given a position of authority.

**Present Day**  
Daniel walked out of the meeting room, his new social security number tucked under his arm.

Until they caught Rogers, Daniel was still stuck with this prosthetic. It worked well enough, but it was still clunky and he still needed his crutch. Tony wanted to melt down the shield (that technically belonged to Stark, but was in Rogers’ possession) and use it in the leg he’d designed. Part of Daniel wondered why Howard hadn’t used the vibranium for something like that.

Well, it was too late to ask.

Daniel frowned as he considered the end Howard and his wife had come to. They should never have been in a position to be assassinated by HYDRA on a back road. Heck! Daniel had been “assassinated” in a lobby. And, for him, it was an occupational hazard. Also, Daniel had little doubt that Peggy would have insisted on seeing the bodies. Maria Stark had been manually strangled. There was no way she’d have missed that.

Once upon a time, Daniel would have loved Peggy. But she had habits and viewpoints that were more than a little unsettling. He’d tried to tell himself it was just because he wasn’t used to a headstrong woman. But…the thing about excuses was that, after a while, the excuses began to sound weak even to your own ears.

And, in the end, she failed to smell the same rat he did because she saw nothing wrong with HYDRA’s modus operandi – it was the same as hers, as a matter of fact. She’d (most likely) willingly looked the other way when Howard and his wife were murdered. She’d left their 17 year old son alone after the fact. It wasn’t that her behaviour was unsettling.

It was borderline psychotic.

And she was hardly the only one.

Of course, because she knew, so did command at S.H.I.E.L.D., including Coulson and Director Fury, who’d taken over from Peggy. She’d probably hand-picked him from the sounds of the guy. Breaking into a man’s home and hiding in the shadows to emotionally manipulate him, really! Added to that, it seemed Cap was as much propaganda as some in the halls of the old SSR had thought him to be.

He’d not only found out and kept it to himself, but he teamed up with an allegedly defected Black Widow (Daniel had his doubts) and then gone on to try to get Tony to fund them and provide them with resources, in order to look for the killer of his parents _without_ telling him. It honestly made Daniel sick to even think about it. So much for Captain America! Fortunately, that was around the same time Tony had dropped them like a hot potato.

‘Hey,’ Daisy greeted him as he came to the car.

‘Hi.’ Daniel smiled and slid into the passenger seat.

It was, technically, a luxury car. Tony had insisted. Daisy had only agreed to borrow it until she got her feet back under her and had earned enough to buy her own. Since she was the one with a current driver’s licence, she was the one driving it. As soon as Daniel got used to the changes in car controls and road laws in the last 60 years, he’d go and get his. Even so, this one was nerve-wracking to practice in.

‘How are you feeling?’ Daniel asked as Daisy pulled out onto the road.

‘Much better,’ Daisy said. ‘Oh, and I’ve got some good news. Rogers and his crew have been tracked moving in.’

‘So, they’ll be custody soon?’

‘I don’t doubt it.’

That was the best news he’d heard all day.

***

Steve ripped the door out, fed up with waiting.

Natasha huffed and stood up from the control panel. ‘Did you set off any alarms?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Steve said. ‘I can’t believe Tony would do this.’

‘I can,’ Clint growled, stalking in. ‘He’s always been a bastard. That’s why he dropped all of us after you guys found HYDRA. He didn’t like not being involved in saving the day, so he dumped all of us!’

‘And now he’s grabbed Fury and Hill and everyone else and thrown them behind bars,’ Sam added. ‘By the way, do we know where he’s keeping them?’

‘The cells will be down here,’ Natasha said, turning and leading them down a corridor.

Steve took up the lead as soon as he saw where she was going. He kicked in the next door.

Natasha sighed. ‘Will you stop that? Do you want to alert them to the break-out before we actually get there?’

Yes, he did, actually. Steve was angry. He wanted to blow off some steam. It wouldn’t be right to take it out on his friends. They did nothing wrong. They were nothing but loyal. So, he needed a bully to fight. He was good at that. Bullies always got what was coming to them. And, at the end of the day, it was the only way they learned.

‘No problem, Nat,’ Clint said. ‘We can take ‘em!’

At that moment, something struck. Something hit Steve hard. He tried to swing around but both of his arms were pulled tight behind his back. He struggled but whoever it was inexplicably did not move.  
He heard the others cry out in alarm and Clint immediately started cursing up a storm. Steve frowned and made a mental note to reprimand him later.

The lights flicked on.

Steve couldn’t believe what he saw. There were five Iron Man suits. Five? What did Tony need five of these for? And who had he gotten into them? Four of them held Steve, Sam, Natasha, and Clint. The fifth one stepped over and took the shield from Steve’s back. That one was obviously Tony, because he spoke from within.

‘Thanks, Rogers,’ he quipped. ‘I think the vibranium in this will serve a proper veteran much better.’

‘Tony…’ Steve said in warning.

The doors suddenly opened and several uniformed men made their way in, guns raised.

‘You have the right to remain silent,’ one of them said. ‘Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.’

‘You prick, Stark!’ Clint barked. ‘Why don’t you come out here and face us like a man!’

‘Juvenile baiting won’t get you anywhere, Barton,’ Tony said, leaning on the shield in his suit. ‘Please continue, Officer Bates.’

The officer’s lips twitched and he went on. ‘You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you.’

‘This is how you choose to come here?’ Natasha demanded. ‘In—’

‘Oh, I’m not here.’ The face-plate flicked up, revealing an empty suit.

Stunned, Steve looked around. The other suits also had their face-plates up, revealing them all to be empty. How could an empty suit of armour move? Steve struggled. He barely budged an inch. How could an empty suit of armour hold him, of all people? It didn’t make any sense. None of this made sense!

‘What did Fury and Coulson ever do to you, Tony?’ Steve demanded. ‘You’ve locked them up for no reason!’

‘ _I_ haven’t done anything,’ Tony said as the face-plates flicked down again. ‘Except for loaning a few remotely-operated Iron Man suits to the authorities so you could be brought in with as little damage as possible. You people are very good at smashing shit up, and a lot of that stuff isn’t cheap, you know. The repairs for it tend to come straight outta tax-payer dollars. You can’t blame anyone for wanting you stopped.’

‘We’re the Avengers,’ Natasha argued. ‘You need us!’

‘There threat is past,’ Tony said in a completely level voice. ‘Your services were not required.’

The suits were too strong to fight against as the team was hauled out of there.

And they threw Steve in a cell he couldn’t break out of.

Tony didn’t answer them again.

***

‘The leg’s nearly ready to go,’ Tony told the conference room. ‘And then Agent Sousa will be able to work as head of the new security division.’

‘It’s made up of formerly burned S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, isn’t it?’ one of the other men asked.

Tony nodded. ‘They’ve all been vetted and have been working for Stark Industries for the past few years. There’s a consensus among them that if Agent Sousa had remained Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. then what did happen never would have.’

‘I must agree.’ One of the attending psychologists said. ‘Our eval on Daniel Sousa shows him to be perfectly mentally healthy and to be a very sound judge of character. His beginning an investigation in the HYDRA back in the 50s is a testament to that. If he hadn’t been assassinated, so to speak, it’s likely he’d have discovered them, then and there.’

The IRS man heaved a sigh. ‘I must say, he’s a refreshing change from Rogers. He filled out all his paperwork without a single complaint. And if he didn’t understand something, he just asked us.’

‘Not to mention his asking about all the changes that occurred in his absence,’ Sousa’s doctor added.

The IRS man nodded. ‘When we finally managed to get Rogers in, he spent so much time complaining about the smallest things, no could believe it. It was actually nice to have a proper adult in.’

Several around the table chuckled.

‘Actually,’ one of the other men turned, ‘why was it that we never heard of Agent Sousa’s presence until Coulson turned on him and you stepped in, Mr. Stark?’

‘From the looks of things, the long and short of it is S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ Tony said. ‘They made no moves to get Sousa re-established in the world and they only let you guys in as a sort of punishment to Rogers.’ He shrugged. ‘It looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. just liked having people displaced in time. They could do what they wanted with them because, in theory, nobody knew those people existed.’

The congressman next to him nodded. ‘And, without people like you to back them up, those people had no way of proving they were who they said they were. They had no way of even getting anybody to check them against fingerprints and suchlike.’

‘Exactly.’

***

The prosthetic was finally attached.

Daisy stood at the side of his bed. Tony stood back with little Morgan sitting on his shoulders. Pepper stood next to him. The doctors stood at the bed, getting ready for his first test of his new leg. They’d attached it and now it was time to see how it would go. Daniel had no doubt that it would work.

‘Are you ready, Mr. Sousa?’ Dr. Palmer asked.

‘Yeah.’ Daniel pulled his legs around and planted both feet on the ground. Tony had melted down Captain America’s shield specifically to turn it into a leg for him.

Daisy moved to one side. Dr. Palmer moved to the other. Daniel took the help that both women offered and slowly stood up. Like the first time he’d ever stood up with a prosthetic, it felt strange. For a moment, his balance felt slightly off. It wasn’t quite vertigo. It was more like the sensation that you were going to fall…but not quite falling.

Then…he steadied himself.

Daniel took his first step with his new leg. The one that Simmons had made him worked better than his first one, but it was heavy and it whirred. This leg felt no heavier than his real one, he noticed when he lifted that one to take another step. And it made no sound at all. Whatever was operating it was soundless.

It really had been made by a Stark.

‘How does it feel?’ Tony asked.

‘It feels like my real leg.’ Now that he was trying to walk normally, Daniel found it was easy to do. ‘What kind of works have you got in this?’

‘Oh, it just works with the motion of your muscles.’ Tony gestured to Dr. Palmer. ‘I worked with both Christine and Strange to make it work like a real leg. I can’t wire it into your brain, so you won’t be able to wiggle your toes or anything. But it turns out that your brain makes the nerves and muscles react when you want to move any limb, even if the limb’s not there. So all I did was make the leg react to that.’

Daniel smiled. Moments like that reminded him of Howard. Howard had loved explaining his thoughts, breakthroughs, and inventions too. It was something rarely seen, though, because Peggy never had any patience for it. Daniel had never been able to shake the feeling it was because she didn’t understand a word of it. She was an agent first and…well, not really a scientist. Anytime Howard got going in her presence, she shot him down. Tony was lucky not to have anyone like her around him.

‘Well, it looks like it worked,’ Dr. Palmer said. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say both of your legs were flesh and blood.’ She looked over at Tony. ‘Do you think you could get this sort of thing working for the average joe on the street?’

‘Yeah, we’re already looking at it,’ Tony answered.

Daniel smiled. Howard would have loved that. Dr. Palmer moved off to the computer. Daniel kept his arm around Daisy’s shoulders as he looked out the window. The New York of the 21st Century was vastly different to the New York he knew. At the same time, it was a much brighter place. Now, nobody died of polio and most diseases that were so horrifying in the 50s were under control.

People who lost limbs were no longer condemned to be cripples.

Technology had made leaps and bounds, making the world interconnected in a way it hadn’t been before. Science had opened many doors of understanding towards people who were once shut away and forgotten about. The law had changed to give people a chance at fair judgement and it took things into consideration that would once have never crossed the minds of lawmakers.

This was a world of new rules, and Daniel was still learning them.

But the 50s were behind him.

The whole 20th Century was behind him.

He’d fallen in love with Daisy Johnson, in a way he’d never felt before.

Tony wasn’t Howard, but that was okay. He had no obligation to be. He was his son. So, of course, he’d be similar to him. But Tony Stark was his own man too. He was a good man, who’d saved countless people that Peggy Carter had ignorantly condemned. He helped Daniel and Daisy both when he had no obligation to.

For that, Daniel was grateful.

…Yes. This was a brand new world.

In many ways, it was a better world.

And Daniel was looking forward to living out the rest of his life in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The psychologist's reference to "mentally healthy" is a reference to a general in-universe feeling that Peggy Carter had some form of undiagnosed sociopathy.

**Author's Note:**

> Credit to Canalia for inspiring this idea in the comments of _The List by Ana(Anafandom)_. Prior to reading those comment, I did not know about this storyline, but I love the idea.


End file.
